I have to say it has been quite mild in the Borders, and dry too - the rivers are looking quite low in comparison to normal. It is great to have longer days again (I got back from my walk after 5pm today and it was still light - hooray!), and of course it is always nice to see the snowdrops appearing.
I have been walking as much as possible, and am really chuffed to say I'm at the 85 mile mark for February already. On average that's just short of 5 miles a day, but actually in reality I've had a few longer days and a few 'zero' days too.
I have been walking primarily in the Borders. The 9 mile loop walk to/from Melrose I found in January has become a favourite for Dave and I. Although it might seem a bit bonkers to keep doing the same walk over and over again, we absolutely love it and it offers so much variety, I can't imagine we'll get bored! We sometimes alter the direction, just to keep ourselves on our toes :)
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| Cauldshiels Loch |
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| A few days later....frozen! |
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| Then Rossco joins us! (Dave wearing the same jacket/hat combo on 3 walks... |
It has also been very interesting to see the seasons literally change in front of our eyes - in January I finished the walk as it was getting dark. In early February we pushed a struggling car up the icy hill to Cauldshiels Loch. By the start of this week, we enjoyed bright skies, nae snow, snowdrops, and a lot less litter than the start of the month (one of our pet hates, so we take bags with us and pick up as much as possible!).
So even though we've done this walk a few times, it has been very different every time. It's a good distance for building up our fitness, and we just love all the sights and sounds.
I did venture north of the Borders last week (heaven forbid!) and enjoyed a great walk with a fellow Helen. We ended up walking 13.5 miles, which may not have been the plan but in good company it just shows how far you can go whilst busy chatting! It was quite a chilly day, and I finally warmed up in the car about half way home, post Mars Bar!!
I was greatly inspired last weekend at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and their Winter Words Festival. Dave and I attended a fantastic talk by "Munro Moonwalker" Alan Rowan about his escapades in the hills after dark. I thoroughly recommend his book which had me laughing out loud on a number of occasions (and it is unusual for me to actually laugh out loud whilst reading!!). It's time I got back into the hills.
It has been exactly a year since my last Munro adventure on Stob a' Choire Odhair. I had such high hopes for 2014 but I didn't manage to bag any more. I'm really hoping that 2015 will be different, but...what will be, will be. (This is a philosophy I am believing in more and more!).
We also thoroughly enjoyed the Banff Mountain Film Festival UK Tour programme, and its wide variety of interesting and inspiring adventure films. Danny MacAskill's amazing 'The Ridge' was always going to be a crowd pleaser, and it certainly didn't disappoint. We really felt that Skye very much held its own amongst films featuring Venezuela, California, Arabia, Patagonia and the French Alps.
We also loved Sun Dog (what an amazing dog!), Drawn (a moving and very poignant film) and Mending the Line (totally exceeded our expectations!). The other films were great too but these ones really stood out.
Going to listen to and watch things like this just make my feet itch to do SOMETHING. But I'm trying to be patient and just concentrate on getting fitter for now. It's nice to have the time to do that.
There have also been some amazing sunsets so far in February too, which I just love.
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| (I was safely behind a fence to take this one!) |
Dave and I are off to Prague next week for a wee winter break. No doubt there will be plenty of walking so I shall take my pedometer along just to see if I can get over 100 miles in February :)
